1 We must leave on one side then, all discussion of our first lessons in Christ, and pass on to our full growth; no need to lay the foundations all over again, the change of heart which turns away from lifeless observances, the faith which turns towards God,[1] 2 instructions about the different kinds of baptism, about the laying on of hands, about the resurrection of the dead, and our sentence in eternity.[2] 3 Such will be our plan, if God permits it. 4 We can do nothing for those who have received, once for all, their enlightenment, who have tasted the heavenly gift, partaken of the Holy Spirit, 5 known, too, God’s word of comfort, and the powers that belong to a future life, 6 and then fallen away. They cannot attain repentance through a second renewal. Would they crucify the Son of God a second time, hold him up to mockery a second time, for their own ends?[3] 7 No, a piece of ground which has drunk in, again and again, the showers which fell upon it, has God’s blessing on it, if it yields a crop answering the needs of those who tilled it; 8 if it bears thorns and thistles, it has lost its value; a curse hangs over it, and it will feed the bonfire at last. 9 Beloved, of you we have better confidence, which does not stop short of your salvation, even when we speak to you as we are speaking now. 10 God is not an unjust God, that he should forget all you have done, all the charity you have shewn in his name, you who have ministered, and still minister, to the needs of his saints. 11 But our great longing is, to see you all shewing the same eagerness right up to the end, looking forward to the fulfilment of your hope; 12 listless no more, but followers of all those whose faith and patience are to bring them into possession of the good things promised them.

13 Such was Abraham. God made him a promise, and then took an oath (an oath by himself, since he had no greater name to swear by), 14 in the words, More and more I will bless thee, more and more I will give thee increase;[4] 15 whereupon Abraham waited patiently, and saw the promise fulfilled. 16 Men, since they have something greater than themselves to swear by, will confirm their word by oath, which puts an end to all controversy; 17 and God, in the same way, eager to convince the heirs of the promise that his design was irrevocable, pledged himself by an oath. 18 Two irrevocable assurances, over which there could be no question of God deceiving us, were to bring firm confidence to us poor wanderers, bidding us cling to the hope we have in view,[5] 19 the anchorage of our souls. Sure and immovable, it reaches that inner sanctuary beyond the veil,[6] 20 which Jesus Christ, our escort, has entered already, a high priest, now, eternally with the priesthood of Melchisedech.

[1] ‘Lifeless observances’; literally, ‘lifeless works’. This has often been taken to mean ‘sins’; but it probably refers, both here and in 9.14 below, to those actions in conformity with the law of Moses which are unprofitable to us without faith. So faith without charity is called ‘lifeless’ by St James (2.26).

[2] ‘Different kinds of baptism’; literally, ‘baptisms’. It seems likely that the earliest Christian catechists would have had to explain to Jewish converts the difference between our Lord’s baptism and that of St John (cf. Ac. 18.25).

[3] vv. 4-6: The Apostle is not dealing here with the remission of our sins by sacramental penance; he only tells us that baptism cannot be repeated, and therefore the kind of instruction mentioned in verse 2, which was designed for catechumens, would be unsuitable for Jewish Christians, if there are such, who have fallen away from the faith after being fully instructed in it. The enlightenment referred to in verse 4 is almost certainly baptism itself (cf. Eph. 5.14). The ‘heavenly gift’ may well mean the Holy Eucharist. What is meant by ‘knowing’ (literally, ‘tasting’) God’s utterance has been much discussed; it may refer to the Holy Scriptures, or to God’s word as revealed to the prophets, or simply to God’s influence on Christian lives. The suggestion in verse 6 is probably that a Christian soul could not receive baptism a second time unless Christ were crucified a second time in its behalf; but the meaning may be simply, that the soul which falls away from the faith inflicts a fresh Passion, as it were, on our Lord himself.

[4] Gen. 22.16, 17.

[5] ‘Wanderers’; this is generally understood as a metaphor taken from those who flee for refuge to a stronghold, or to the Cities of Refuge mentioned in Numbers, ch. 35. But the allusion to an anchor in the next verse would suggest, rather, the picture of sailors forced by a storm to ‘flee landwards’ at the nearest possible harbour.

[6] For the veil which separated the Holy Place from the inner Sanctuary of the Temple, cf. Ex. 26.33; Mt. 27.51.